wild and freeflowing...

I know that my gardening style is not for everyone since most of the time it looks like a tangled mess and you will certainly see that in tomorrow's first of the month garden tours. One of the reasons I garden is for the COLOR after our long white winters and but mostly I garden for the birds, butterflies and other fun wildlife that visit. If a self seeded birdseed (such as these sunflowers) or a wildflower grows I leave it and only the ugliest weeds are pulled. The wild flowers are the most attractive to the butterflies and those sunflowers that pop up everywhere are filled with birds these days. Enjoy!

worth the wait...

I waited since purchasing this passion vine plant on May 30th for the first blossoms but the wait was so worth it!

garden shots...

I've been gone most days for the past 2 weeks so yesterday I went out to fill the feeders and was quite shocked to see what the gardens looked like. There are many flattened areas and here are the culprits...
They wrestle and play all day long and since I haven't been around to shoo them out of the garden it must have been an awful lot of fun playing in the tall flowers!

Friday flutter bys...

after the rain...

It rained off and on today so in between showers I snuck out to take a couple of raindrop shots. The first two are one of my new clematises I planted this spring...viticella 'Venosa Violacea'. Isn't she a beauty?

Next up is another of the new clematis...John Huxtable. He is equally pretty or shall I say handsome?
I have never had luck growing hollyhocks but after hearing of Lucie & Laura's dancing ballerina blossoms I tried once again this year by buying two plants. I am happy to report that one survived and I hope I can get some of the seeds to grow in the back next year.

Around suppertime tonight we really had a downpour and then the sun tried to peek through the gently falling rain. It created the most beautiful double rainbow that I tried to take photos of without too many rain splatters on the lens.





I love rainbows, especially double ones and these photos truly don't do what I saw justice - the second rainbow didn't photograph well.

the last of the Colorado pics...

I haven't blogged for so long...you probably thought I went on another vacation! I have had a lot going on the last few days but this post was already half uploaded so I thought I would finish the vacation pics.

These are from our last full day riding. We headed west and went up to the Twin Lakes area amongst the collegiate mountains. The first two photos are of the twin lakes area.

Next up is a road up to Independence Pass...
and a couple views from Independence Pass including...

posing at the pass sign.

We stopped in beautiful Aspen...
and walked around some of the shops. I enjoyed parts of the downtown where there are not drive through streets but more of a park-like setting center street.
It was hot and we laughed at this dog trying to cool off on a hot day...
and this little kid pondering doing the same.
Musicians were playing in several of the green areas and...
a farmer's market was held on two more city blocks.
Soon we had enough of the crowds and decided it was best to leave Aspen before we saw, heard or spoke bad things about it.
We rode back towards Independence Pass and stopped for a nice picnic lunch near a waterfall at a trail head.

We also stopped to tour the ghost town of Independence and visited with the onsite historian who actually lives in one of the refurbished miner's cabins.


One last peek at the snow atop Independence pass...
and a scenic drive...
to this townsite of Twin Lakes and it's historical district.
We saw a couple of newlyweds riding to their reception...
at the Inn of the Black Wolf. Do you see all those hummingbird feeders? I have never seen so many hummingbirds in my life as I did on this Colorado trip. From the campground, to the various parks to this Inn they were everywhere and swarming feeders.
On our ride back to the campground we saw some pronghorn antelope.
After conquering Pike's Peak and Independence Pass and many other mountain roads I bought myself a new bike riding t-shirt..."Real Women Don't Need Guard Rails"... :)